


At long last

by Manuelita_la_Tortuga



Category: The Outer Worlds (Video Game)
Genre: Asexual Character, F/F, Mutual Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-13
Updated: 2019-11-13
Packaged: 2021-01-29 19:41:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21415603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Manuelita_la_Tortuga/pseuds/Manuelita_la_Tortuga
Summary: In which the Captain of the Unreliable also gets a happy ending.
Relationships: The Captain/Ellie Fenhill
Comments: 14
Kudos: 114





	At long last

Helen sat at the table in the mess, her head drooping on her arms, drooling slightly onto the data pad she’d fallen asleep against. It was more instinct than conscious thought that brought her upright, pistol in hand before she fully made out the sound that woke her up. 

“Whoa! Hey, there, boss! Don’t shoot! It’s us!” called out a voice she recognized and she blinked the sleep away from her eyes to see Felix at the door, holding what appeared to be a cake with lit candles on it, with Nyoka, Parvati, Junlei, Ellie, Max and even SAM clustered behind him.

“Happy birthday, Captain,” Parvati said hesitantly, sounding almost as if she were asking.

Her hand dropped to her side as she gaped stupidly at her former crew.

“What are you…?” She blinked in confusion and turned to Parvati. “It’s not my birthday.”

Parvati grinned and shrugged.

“I figured not, but none of us knew when your birthday was, and Dr Welles said this was the date he defrosted you, so happy fifth birthday!”

“Captain, I recommend you extinguish the flames on the cake Felix is carrying before the fire spreads,” came ADA’s voice from the walls.

Felix held the cake out to her. Still looking confused, she stepped forward and blew out the candles. As he stepped out of the doorway to place the cake on the table, Parvati pushed past him and launched herself at Helen.

“It’s so good to see you, Captain.”

Helen slipped her pistol back into its holster and returned her former mechanic’s embrace.

“It’s good to see you too, Parvati.” She looked at the others over Parvati’s shoulder. “All of you. I’m still not entirely sure why you’re all here, though.”

“We missed you, isn’t that enough?” Though Ellie’s voice held its usual snarky tone, there was a look in her eyes that told Helen there was some truth to the statement, despite the woman’s repeated assurances that she didn’t need other people.

“I won’t argue with that.” Helen grinned around the room. “I’ve missed you all too.”

Felix turned from one of the drawers with a knife and a stack of plates.

“Enough talk. Time for cake!”

The next few hours were filled with talk, laughter and drinking, and a lot of stories that started with “do you remember.” 

“Do you remember that time that Felix drop kicked a mantiqueen just outside Cascadia?”

"Where'd a kid from the Back Bays even learn a move like that?"

“Do you remember when Ellie fell into that porcuhedge and spent the next two days off her head from the poison?”

"Don't bash it. That was a quality high for the money."

“Remember when Max and SAM took out an entire primal herd by themselves?”

“That was when I was still working out my anger at the world.”

* * *

At the bottom of the ramp, Helen hugged her friends tightly before they headed back towards the main docks where Ellie’s ship was waiting for them - one advantage of being in charge had been being able to commandeer Akande’s private landing pad for herself. She sighed to herself when she noticed that Ellie had slipped away without saying goodbye.

As she continued waving, she thought back to another night when Ellie had left without a word. She had helped Ellie get her revenge on her parents by hacking into the insurance office’s terminal and making Ellie herself the beneficiary on her life insurance policy. Ellie had offered her a bit cartridge as thanks for her help, but Helen had refused it. 

That didn’t sit well with Ellie, who hated feeling she was indebted to anyone, so that night she had slipped into Helen’s quarters, and tried to thank her in a different way. With Ellie straddling her on her bed, Helen had stammered out that she was “like Parvati.” Ellie had stared at her a few moments before climbing to her feet and pulling her shirt back on.

“Don’t think I’ve ever misjudged something quite so badly before,” she had muttered on her way out the door.

Helen had blinked back tears. What was the point of getting attached after all? It always turned out the same way. People like Junlei were one in a million and she should stop hoping she would meet someone like that too.

Things were… uncomfortable between them for a while after that, and Ellie had been the first to leave the crew of the Unreliable after they rescued Phineas.

* * *

Helen rubbed her chest as the doors closed behind her friends. Despite the years that had passed she still had an almost physical pain thinking back to that night.

She took a deep breath, rubbed her hands against the sides of her legs and shook herself off. Best put it out of her mind again. She turned and headed back up the ramp into the Unreliable, stopping short in the entrance when she saw Ellie leaning against the wall in front of her, her usual smirk on her face.

“Hey, can we talk?”

Helen stared at her blankly for a few moments before nodding.

“Sure. What can I help you with?”

Ellie huffed a quiet laugh through her nose.

“Still at it, huh?” At Helen’s questioning glance, she continued. “Always wanting to help everyone.” Her smirk changed to something softer, not an expression Helen had ever seen on Ellie’s face. After a moment, she slipped her hands into her back pockets and started pacing back and forth. “I ran into Nyoka at the Yacht Club a couple of months ago.”

Helen watched her in confusion.

“That’s nice. Were you dropping off a shipment in Stellar Bay?”

“Picking one up.” Ellie waved a hand. “But that’s not important. We got a little drunk that night...” Helen snorted and Ellie grinned. “OK, a lot drunk. The point is, we got to talking. Among other things, she wanted to know why the two of us,” she gestured between herself and Helen, “never hooked up, when it was obvious to the whole crew that we were crazy about each other.” She stopped her pacing and turned to look at Helen, watching her ears turn bright red. She frowned. “You… was she right?”

Helen crossed her arms tightly in front of herself. 

“Don’t mock me, Ellie. You already know she is. You told me you’d seen me looking at you… that night… when you… you know. That’s why you came to my quarters.”

“Yeah, but when you told me you were… like Parvati, I thought you weren’t interested.”

“In sex! Not in you!” She clapped a hand over her mouth and turned away.

Behind her, there was absolute silence for several moments. 

“I’m an idiot.”

Helen glanced over shoulder as Ellie ran her hands through her hair. 

“Nyoka was right to smack me upside the head that night.” She sighed and looked up at Helen. “This is all your fault, you know.” She smirked and held up a hand as Helen’s eyes widened in outrage. “You were the one who showed me that we can’t always go it alone.” She started pacing nervously again. “That sometimes we need other people. And if there’s one thing I’ve realized in the last five years, it’s that... I need... you.”

Helen gaped at her. 

“But… you...”

“If my choices are sex or you, I choose you.” She turned back towards Helen in time to see a tear run down her cheek. She walked up to her and gently wiped it away. “Come on now, don’t get all mushy on me.”

Helen laughed shakily.

“You started it.”

Ellie smirked. 

“Yeah, OK, fair point.” Her thumb continued brushing across Helen’s cheek. “Come with me. On the Capricious.”

Helen frowned.

“You want me to just leave my work?”

Ellie rolled her eyes.

“You do all your work here anyway. Everybody in Halcyon knows you don’t really live in Byzantium. You live and work on the Unreliable.”

Helen shrugged uncomfortably.

“I get claustrophobic in there.” She gestured over her shoulder towards the ship entrance and the HHC building beyond it.

“Hey, you don’t have to tell me. I ran away from this place, remember?” Her voice softened. “Come with me. Does it really matter which ship you live on? I have a little shuttle with a skip drive you can use if you need to get to a meeting in a hurry. We can even patch ADA in to the shuttle so she can control it for you.” She stopped to take a breath. “Come with me. I’ve missed you.”

"I've missed you too," Helen whispered, before rising on tip toe and kissing Ellie softly.

Ellie hesitated.

“Is… that a yes?”

Helen smiled shyly.

“Yes.”

**Author's Note:**

> Because my gut reaction while watching the ending I got was "everybody's leaving. The captain's all alone now."


End file.
